Otto Rivers

Otto Rivers is the lead tour guide for Bespoke Tours of the World - the mysterious “speakeasy” of tour groups - you don’t call them; they call you.

Founded in 2022, BTW specializes in hosting private excursions and delivering artisanally crafted shenanigans in the principal cities of the world.

Otto is a native of Bucksnort, Tennessee. Drawing upon his upbringing as the overeducated son of a Southern Baptist minister, he invites you into dialectical conversation with structured inquiries such as, “What would happen if you put your finger in that?” and “Why exactly is this so damn sticky?”

His signature tour “Under the Pizza and Cocktail Trees of Forgetfulness” of New York City has inspired fan fiction in furtive WhatsApp group chats.

His “Bicycles and Biergartens” tour of Munich leaves participants with enough mental stamina to memorize compound German words, but also enough love in their heart to resist the occasional temptation to engage in Backpfeifengesicht.

His “Bubbles and Beignets” tour of New Orleans is not spoken of at all; the memories can only lay bare the inadequacies of the spoken word. Veterans have learned that their guttural outbursts of phrases like “piquant sunbeams” and "kaleidoscope umami” only confuse instead delight their interlocutors. Morse code rendered in crayon is often the lowest common denominator.

When not leading tours, Otto enjoys hand modeling on the Lower East Side, applied electromagnetic spectrum research along the Interstates of America, and guest lecturing at Universidad de Morón on hostage negotiation techniques in Buenos Aires, Argentina.